Cooking

The delights of Egypt’s flavor-filled cuisine come to life in this beautifully illustrated gift book, bringing quintessential Middle Eastern recipes within the reach of cooks everywhere

Egyptian cuisine is one of the world's oldest and yet least known food traditions. This charming, pocket-sized collection of recipes is the perfect introduction to Egyptian cooking. From classic starters and breakfast dishes like ta‘miya (falafel) and fuul medammis (slow-cooked fava beans), to well-loved main meals such as stuffed cabbage leaves (mahshi cromb), and mouthwatering almond pudding and fritter balls soaked in syrup, Egyptian Flavors leads you on a wonderful discovery of this unique and delightful cuisine.

Celebrated chef Dyna Eldaief offers 50 easy-to-follow recipes that are rich with the vegetables, legumes, and meats that are central to Egyptian cooking, calling forth the sun-baked land of the Nile and inviting expert and novice alike to bring exciting new flavors to their home kitchen.

A modern approach to one of the world’s oldest cuisines and winner of Best Mediterranean Cuisine Book (Gourmand World Cookbook Awards), new in paperback

Combining mouthwatering recipes with a fresh, contemporary design, The Taste of Egypt brings the sophisticated colors and flavors of Egyptian and Middle Eastern cuisine to the modern home kitchen in unpretentious, down-to-earth style. Impress your dinner guests with sublime appetizers such as stuffed-vine leaves and roast eggplant dip. Cook up a storm with silky cumin-infused lentil soup, sensational spiced meatballs, and delicious artichokes cooked in red pepper sauce. There are summery salads to fill a picnic hamper and hearty slow-cooked beans and basterma (fenugreek-spiced cured beef) to evoke the bustling warmth of a Middle Eastern food market. And the recipes for sweet delights are designed to satisfy even the most persistent sweet tooth. Presented in a vibrant, accessible style, The Taste of Egypt is a celebration of a great culinary tradition and an exciting addition to the repertoire of the modern home cook.

WINNER OF THE AL-AHRAM APPRECIATION PRIZE
WINNER OF THE GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOK AWARD

A fully illustrated compendium of traditional Egyptian recipes

In this beautifully illustrated volume, Magda Mehdawy has gathered in one book the most complete collection of Egyptian recipes ever assembled. Drawing on the traditional recipes she learned from her grandmother and other members of her generation, Mehdawy offers a surprising range of sumptuous recipes and unusual flavors that are part of Egypt’s millennia-long cultural heritage. She also reveals the historical depth of the national cuisine, beginning with a section on food and wine-making techniques used by the ancient Egyptians. For readers interested in more recent traditions, Mehdawy provides lists of typical menus served on Islamic holidays and feasts, and a fascinating overview of traditional beliefs regarding vegetables and spices.

While covering regional dishes from all over Egypt, Mehdawy emphasizes the cuisine of her native Mediterranean city of Alexandria, providing a wide selection of seafood dishes, such as baked sardines and shrimp kufta with rice. Grouped by food categories—including Broths and Soups, Stuffed Vegetables, Poultry, Pickles, Jams, and Desserts—the book helpfully lists detailed health information as well as practical advice on shopping for the best-quality ingredients, and where to find them.

Even chefs already familiar with Egyptian cuisine will find new dishes here. With copious illustrations in full color throughout, this compendium is a great introduction to the rich flavor and variety of the traditional Egyptian kitchen.

John Feeney, best known for his landmark documentary films and still photography that have chronicled much of Egypt’s life and many of its greater and lesser events over the last four decades, also happens to be something of a wizard in the kitchen, and he has finally been persuaded to share the recipes for some of his most original—and extraordinarily tasty—creations for all to enjoy: ten hot and seven cold soups of the Egyptian winter and summer. Beyond merely nutritious, Feeney’s soups are either ambrosial or aphrodisiac, and sometimes both, and, with the possible exception of his legendary Creme de Truffe du Desert, for which the highly elusive desert truffle is essential, all can be made with ingredients seasonally available in Egypt and widely available in other parts of the world too. Most of the ingredients of the winter soups have been used in Egypt for thousands of years: lentils, cumin, leeks, garlic, and gargir (Egyptian rocket), with a special lettuce soup to celebrate the ancient pharaonic festival of Shamm al-Nisim and the coming of spring. It is worth putting up with the often stifling heat of July and August in Cairo to enjoy the most unusual iced summer soups. Using the melons of Sinai and the juices of pomegranates, guavas, and strawberries, these ravishing soups can also be enjoyed in more temperate lands. Each recipe is accompanied by the author’s own photographs and by a wealth of little known facts about the spices, herbs, fruits, and vegetables used—the aphrodisiac power of ‘dangerous’ nutmeg and exotic ginger, the use of apricots ‘with a touch of arsenic,’ and the tendency of lettuce ‘to induce dreams.’

A modern twist on traditional Middle Eastern cuisine

Middle Eastern cuisine is renowned the world over for its sophistication, variety, and flavor. Bilhana (Egyptian for 'bon appétit') brings a contemporary twist to traditional Middle Eastern dishes with the use of healthy cooking methods and the freshest ingredients the region has to offer. Spanning the vast area south of the Mediterranean from the East (Lebanon and Egypt) to the West (Morocco), from simple mezze or breakfast dishes to elaborate stews and roasts, the recipes in this book showcase the vibrant colors and immense variety of Middle Eastern cooking as well as being easy to follow. Included are recipes for Roasted Eggplant with Tahini, Alexandrian Grilled Shrimp, Shakshuka, Moroccan Lamb Stew, Vegan Moussaka, Green Beans in Garlic and Caramelized Onions, Pomegranate and Guava Salad, and much more. Exquisitely illustrated with more than 130 full-color photographs.